The owners of the above
Ranch just outside Chiredzi in the Lowveld ofZimbabwe were barricaded into
their home on Saturday at 5.30 AM in themorning. A large crowd of people had
collected at their gate armed withpangas, choppers, and hoe handles. They
barricaded the entrance off withlogs and then proceeded to intimidate the
owners and staff.

Attempts by the owners and friends in Chiredzi to get
the police therequickly only drew a response some 2 hours later. When the
police leftChiredzi for Maranatha Ranch a message had proceeded them and the
violentcrowd hid their weapons, and suddenly became passive. The police did
fineone person found with a weapon $25,000, but no other arrests were made
forwhat was plainly a case of PUBLIC VIOLENCE and they the police, were seen
alittle later driving around the property with the vehicle full of part
ofthe violent crowd. This crowd of thugs had been collected and brought
thereby an A2 settler B. Mavhuhdure (ex soldier from the DRC) who had
claimedland on the property.

The owners are confused, as they had
also received the good news fromMinister Nkomo and the Chiredzi police that
there would not be any moreJAMBANJAS. (Public Violence in our language.) The
owners will proceed andtry to get the A2 B. Mavhuhdure and others charged
with public violence,their first attempt on Monday morning
failed.

Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides
for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the
anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal
Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to
continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this
provision, I have sent the enclosed notice to the Federal Register for
publication. It states that the national emergency blocking the property of
persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe is to
continue in effect beyond March 6, 2004.

The crisis caused by the actions and policies of certain members of the
Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe's democratic
processes or institutions has not been resolved. These actions and policies pose
a continuing, unusual, and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the
United States. For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to
continue the national emergency declared on March 6, 2003, blocking the property
of persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe and to
maintain in force the sanctions to respond to this threat.

So there goes Simon
Khaya Moyo, the Zimbabwean ambassador to SouthAfrica. The man from a regime
that has closed newspapers and bombed theiroffices, expelled all foreign
journalists, arrested many local scribes andintroduced draconian media laws,
among many other transgressions.

Yet the man stands up to
unashamedly pontificate about the need to"learn to live by the truth" in
"Peta confuses corruption fight with rightsviolations" (The Star Letters,
February 25). How interesting.

I do not normally respond to the
diatribes against me from Zimbabweangovernment mandarins. But silence can at
times be misconstrued.

Moyo tries to besmirch me by refuting a
story that is 100% correct andby concocting a story that I was expelled from
the "Union of ZimbabweJournalists (sic) because of conduct unbecoming of a
journalist". Hardly thekind of stuff to expect from a regime that "lives by
the truth".

Moyo argues that a new apartheid-style amendment law
empowering thepolice to detain without trial for 21 days is motivated by an
"urgent dutyto confront the scourge of corruption". Congratulations, Moyo
for yourregime's new realisation of the "urgent need" to fight corruption.
Nevermind that it's 24 years late.

But Moyo falsely claims that
this detention can be sanctioned only bythe courts. He says: "This amendment
gives powers to the courts to extendthe period of detention for certain
offences by up to 21 days, to facilitatefurther investigations. Contrary to
what Peta says, only the courts havethis power and not the police
..."

What planet are you living on, Moyo? Where did Mugabe pick you
from?

Let's consider what Supreme Court Judge Vernanda Ziyambi said
of thislaw, a day after your letter, in the case involving businessman
JamesMakamba: "The judge or magistrate before whom the accused person
appears interms of the amendment law is deprived of his discretion whether
or not togrant bail and merely acts as a rubber stamp to give a semblance of
legalityto the detention ... This strikes me as being patently
unconstitutional."

Even before Judge Ziyambi's opinion, various
groups had condemned thislaw specifically because it deprives the courts of
their right to decide onbail once it is invoked by the state.

This is articulated even in the regime's own Herald newspaper (see TheHerald
of February 27 at herald.co.zw).

The fact that Moyo does not
even bother to understand the laws heshould defend speaks volumes about him.
It could be ignorance or stupidity,or both.

It could be
Mugabe's favouring of drooling sycophants and hoodlums forappointments. Moyo
knelt on airport tarmacs to greet Mugabe and his wife. Nowonder Zimbabwe is
where it is today.

Moyo calls my description of Makamba as a foe of
Mugabe a "shamelessfabrication". But he knows that Makamba won primary
elections to contest theHarare executive mayorship on a Zanu-PF ticket and
that Mugabe cancelledthis nomination to impose a crony, Solomon
Tawengwa.

I am unaware of the Union of Zimbabwe Journalists that
Moyo says I wasexpelled from. He maybe referring to the Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists(ZUJ), of which I was secretary-general. I automatically
relinquished theposition and membership the day I was hounded into exile by
Moyo's regime.But that didn't stop Moyo and some goons in the ZUJ from
fabricatingstatements against me even though I was at no stage ever charged
with anymisconduct.

The ZUJ is dominated by regime journalists
because of the state'sbroadcasting monopoly. How they resisted my efforts to
get the union to domore in fighting private media repression is a matter of
public record inZimbabwe. Hence frustrated private media colleagues left the
ZUJ in protestto form the splinter Independent Journalists Association of
Zimbabwe.

I was of course happy to learn from Moyo about my
"expulsion" from anorganisation to which I had long ceased to be a member.
It should be nowonder that, since I left, not a single statement from the
ZUJ criticisingMugabe's siege of the private media has been read in South
Africa.

To me, the best example of expulsion remains the decision
of voters inthe Bulilamangwe constituency to dump Moyo from parliament in
favour of aworthy candidate in the 2000 elections. That should have been the
end, wereit not for his bended knees.

South Africans have a
choice to get Zimbabwean news from their diversemedia or from Moyo directly
in Pretoria. It is their choice.

.. Basildon Peta is the
Africa correspondent of The Independent,London

A Touch of Zimbabwe In The United KingdomSandra NyairaLuton -
20 Feb 04

The city of Luton is earning a reputation as the Harare of
the UnitedKingdom. Located between London and Birmingham, Luton is home to
anincreasing number of Zimbabweans. Not only can you hear Shona being
spokenon the streets of the city, but a number of stores sell products
morecommonly seen in Zimbabwe, such as maize meal, traditional
vegetables,peanuts and madora. Some shopkeepers are even marking price tags
of goods'Shona and even Ndebele.A Zimbabwean born lawyer, Oswald Ndanga,
has lived in Luton for more than adecade. He says the number of Zimbabweans
moving into the city isincreasing. "You find Zimbabweans all over, " he
says. "I don't know whatthe number is but it's very large." He adds that
there are a large number ofZimbabweans in Luton who came "to seek asylum, or
to run away frompersecution and harassment by their government in
Zimbabwe."

Mr.Ndanga figures that the city, with a workforce of 185
thousand, isappealing to Zimbabweans because of its factory jobs and
positions withmanufacturing companies. He acts as legal representative to
manyZimbabweans, some of who are in the country illegally. Mr.Ndanga
saysseveral clients have told him they would like to return home
eventually.

But 33-year old Eunice Harahwa, who has lived in Luton for
three years, saysshe has no plans to leave. "We have got everything we need.
We have got aplace where we go for braais, eat our traditional foods, sadza,
we eat guruand everything here." As enterprising Zimbabweans provide her
with the goodsshe wants, she says she has no plans to leave.

Forty
year old businesswoman Tanaka Pfebve is well known among Zimbabweansin the
city. Her popular Kumusha restaurant serves traditional dishes on thesame
level as the popular Mereki and Zindoga in Zimbabwe. "The fact thatthere are
so many Zimbabweans living here brings us good business," says Ms.Pfebve,
adding "it's good to be in Luton because it is improving
mybusiness."

She admits, however, that life in Luton is not all rosy
for Zimbabweans. Shesays many of the Zimbabweans she knows share a room with
as many as 10people. Mr.Pfebve says they live as inexpensively as possible,
in order tosave money to send home to their families.

A think
tank, dedicated to influencing political change in Zimbabwe waslaunched
Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Zimbabwe Institute saysit plans
to forge a new political culture in the country, once there is achange of
government.Prominent academic Brian Raftopolous launched the Z-I at a press
conferencein the Johannesburg suburb of Rosebank. He says the institute
comprisesZimbabwean academics and researchers who are advancing an agenda of
"socialliberation".

Professor Raftopolous says Z-I is an autonomous
organization, independent ofgovernment and political parties. However, MDC
officials were present at theannouncement of the institute's launch and
journalists asked him about this.He said the creation of the institute is
partly due to talks within theopposition party.

"The discussion on
such a research body came out of discussions within theMDC. They felt a need
to have greater policy debates, Professor Raftopoloussaid. "But we were very
clear that the establishment of such a body couldnot be the hand maiden of
the MDC. It has to be a body that, while linkingwith the MDC, is also able
to be critical of issues in the MDC itself andnationally.

Some
reporters wanted to know why the Z-I will be based in Johannesburg,when it
is primarily a Zimbabwean organization. He said the politicalenvironment in
Zimbabwe make it difficult to operate in the country thistime.

He
said "the problems of Zimbabwe can be discussed anywhere and the work ofthe
Institute will be to carry out work in Zimbabwe itself, carry outresearch
work in Zimbabwe, to begin to generate policy debates withinZimbabwe
itself."

The MDC secretary for economic affairs, Tendai Biti, was visibly
incensedwhen asked why the opposition party is initiating think tanks in
SouthAfrica in stead of mobilizing individuals in Zimbabwe. Mr Biti said it
issimplistic to assume say the party must only examine the process
ofachieving change.

"The critical issue is that it's not just change
for change's sake butchange for a better Zimbabwe and if you are going to
achieve that you mustengage in intellectual discourse," he said.

Mr
Biti said that once it come to power, the MDC will implement
policiesformulated by the Z-I.

The Z-I has an initial budget of up to
300-thousand US Dollars. ProfessorRaftopolous refused to name the
donors.

MDC vice president Gibson Sibanda, party spokesman Paul Themba
Nyathi,presidential aide William Bango and shadow economic affairs minister
TapuwaMashakada were among the MDC officials present at the launching of
theZimbabwe Institute.

WOMEN OF ZIMBABWE ARISE (WOZA)WOZA means 'Come forward'. By women for women
and with women, across race,colour, creed, class or political persuasion.
Empowering women to becourageous, caring, committed and in communication
with their
communities.---------------------------------------------------8th MARCH
2004 is INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY - MARCH TO DEFEND YOUR RIGHTSWomen in
Zimbabwe are not celebrating, they are crying because they arebeing stripped
of their rights. Join us at 9 am for a thirty-minuteinter-denominational
service, followed by a peaceful procession at:

Harare Central Baptist
Church 2nd St/ Fife AveBulawayo: St Marys Catholic Cathedral, Lobengula St
/9th AveLondon: Solidarity protest at Zimbabwe House in London, at
5.30pm.Zimbabwe House, 429 The Strand, WC1 (Nearest tube: Charing
Cross)email for more info: loisd9@yahoo.co.uk------------------------------------------------------Our
protest message is: DIGNIFY US WITH A NEW CONSTITUTION. DO NOT STRIPWOMEN
OF THEIR RIGHTS.

What we expect of participants:¨ Attend the walk
in solidarity from 9 to 11am on Monday.¨ Or gather friends together at your
home to hold a prayer meeting forZimbabwean women.¨ Those attending
street processions should show their love by bringingflowers to hand out as
they walk. Come dressed in white for peace.¨ If you cannot join us,
demonstrate at your closest shopping centre.

We, the mothers of the
nation, would like Zimbabweans to realise that theConstitution is supposed
to be the mother of all laws. Zimbabweans no longerrespect this mother and
have neglected her badly before and afterIndependence. We believe that this
is the reason this mother is now givingbirth to abnormal children. Public
Order & Security Act, POSA and Access toInformation and Protection of
Privacy Act, AIPPA are two of her notoriouschildren. POSA is mad and out of
control and AIPPA makes us dummies. It isfrom a woman's body that life
begins and this is also true of theConstitution. We appeal to Zimbabweans to
respect and dignify theconstitution as they would any mother. This mother of
ours was only halfdressed in Lancaster and her clothes are now tattered and
torn leaving hernaked and open to abuse by evil men. We, the Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)are saying that the Constitution of Zimbabwe is being
gang raped and forcedto produce the most notorious kinds of children. As
mothers, we are callingfor the nation to respect us and dignify us with a
new Constitution. Onlythen can good and clean laws be birthed and nurtured
for growth. DIGNIFY USWITH A NEW CONSTITUTION. DO NOT STRIP WOMEN OF THEIR
RIGHTS.

MUGABE PROMISED TO PROTECT WOMENS RIGHTS! IS HE DOING
THAT?

Together with other African leaders, Robert Mugabe signed the
"PROTOCOL TOTHE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES' RIGHTS ON THE RIGHTS
OF WOMEN INAFRICA" on 16 November 2001, to make sure that ALL rights of ALL
women areprotected.

By signing this Protocol, Robert Mugabe promised
to [among other things]:¨ End discrimination against Women¨ Respect
Women's dignity¨ Protect Women's right to life and security

Mugabe
pledged that to do this he would:¨ Prevent and prohibit violence against
women in public and private spheres¨ Promote peace education to break the
culture of violence against women¨ Punish perpetrators of violence against
women¨ Focus on the rehabilitation of women victims of violence.

For
women to be fully dignified they must have equality, freedom, peace,justice,
solidarity and democracy. They must not be exploited or degraded.

HAVE
THESE THINGS HAPPENED? WE MUST HOLD OUR LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE TO
THEIRPROMISES!!

For
progress reports on the day, please callCrisis Coalition (+263) 4-442988
Harare or mobile (+263)91 288 605 email:[info@crisis.co.zw]Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (+263) 4-706981 email: [zlhr@icon.co.zw]From the
Shona and Ndebele translation of this email and full ratifiedProtocol To The
African Charter On Human And Peoples' Rights On The RightsOf Women In
Africa" pls email woza@mango.zw

We live in Dallas, Texas and would like to thank
JAG for the great workthat you are doing over there. You are all in our
hopes and prayers.

We have had such success with finding lost friends
that we are hoping thatwe can find some others. We just heard terrible news
that our friends Pietand Myrna Conradie lost their daughter recently. If
anyone knows how wecan get hold of them we would greatly appreciate it.
They were farming inMutepatepa. Also Donny and Anne Huxham also of
Mteps...

By Brian BenzaSOME
commercial banks facing liquidity crunch may be forced to closeoperations or
merge with other players when the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe(RBZ) withdraws
the Troubled Banks Fund at the end of this month.

Inside sources at the
central bank revealed that some of the financialinstitutions, which received
a lifeline under the fund, have close to zerochances of returning the money
as they are still reeling under liquiditystress despite having received the
necessary support.

They said the financial landscape was headed for
change, as some playerswere likely to close shop while others would mull new
survival strategies.

"The other turning point are the new capitalisation
requirements and theattendant boardroom restructuring and re-organisation as
demanded by thecentral bank.

"It is very likely that some will not
meet the requirements,'' said anofficial within the banking
sector.

The Reserve Bank has directed all commercial banks to be
capitalised to thetune of $10 billion by June 2004 from the current
capitalisation level of$500 million.

Of the banks that received
liquidity support from the RBZ, only Barbican isreported to have been able
to reimburse the funds on time while the otherbanks are said to be
struggling to repay the funds.

"We have paid back the loan we got from
the central bank on February 19 2004plus the interest of 300 percent through
the tremendous support we weregiven by our shareholders and
clients.

"The loan has been repaid fully and we have now redirected our
efforts tomeeting the new capitalisation target for commercial banks set by
thecentral bank," said Barbican Holdings chief executive Dr Mthuli
Ncube.

"We are now in the process of working out ways to recapitalise the
bank andwe are going to seek support from the existing shareholders and
there is achance that we might also increase our share capital and bring in
newshareholders" added Dr Ncube.

Century Bank public relations
manager Miss Farayi Mangwende declined tocomment on whether her bank has
paid any part of the funds they receivedunder the fund referring all
questions to the RBZ.

Trust bank, which received the lion's share of the
fund, confirmed that theyreceived over $120 billion and they were likely to
repay the money withinthe next two months.

Efforts to get comment
from officials from other banks proved fruitlessyesterday.

Although
the governor's new measure of ensuring that commercial banks areadequately
capitalised is noble, sources said chances were that some bankswould fail to
meet the new requirements resulting in mergers, takeovers
orshutdowns.

Once a bank collapses in such a highly sensitive sector,
the ripple effectmight be devastating as more institutions could be caught
up in the web.

If any bank collapses, it will be what RBZ governor Dr
Gideon Gono termedshort-term pain in his monetary policy statement. He said,
however, 2004will be a year characterised by re-organisations and failures
as competitiveforces, tighter monetary policy and regulation and increased
capitalrequirements take toll.

Talks of mergers and takeovers have
been extensive with some commercialbanks expected to join arms with other
financial services firms for thepurposes of diversification.

Some
banks have placed their minimum lending rates at unreasonably highlevels
compared to their counterparts so as to discourage any potentialborrowers
because of their illiquid status.

A Zimbabwean court has rejected the alleged
confessions of six oppositionactivists accused of killing an official of the
government party, Zanu-PF,28 months ago.Judge Sandra Mungwira said the
police had assaulted the six and theirrelatives, deprived them of sleep and
food, threatened them with guns, anddenied them medical attention and access
to lawyers.

The men's lawyers said they would ask the state to withdraw
the charges andfree the men, who include a Movement for Democratic Change
MP, FletcherDulini Ncube.

State prosecutors said they reserved the
right to call further witnesses.

The six were arrested for killing Cain
Nkala in November 2001 near Bulawayo.Nkala was strangled after being accused
of kidnapping and killing anopposition election agent.

Police
submitted a video purporting to show the accused leading them to ashallow
grave where Nkala's body was buried.

The judge said the officer who
filmed the scene arrived late, admitted thathis recording was incomplete and
testified that he forgot to switch on thetime and duration
indicator.

From all that has gone before we can build
a historical scenario that must have been something along these
lines:

When the ‘Lapita’ people set off on their
first tentative voyages of discovery in the Pacific about three and a half
thousand years ago, some of them also sailed west, carrying their Austronesian
language through the populated islands of the Indonesian archipelago, and across
the open ocean to Sri
Lanka and Southern
India.Though their language was later replaced by
that of Dravidian people who migrated overland into the peninsular, these
‘Polynesian’ mariners maintained their dominance on the coasts of both India and
Sri Lankawhere their ancient boat
designs can still be seen.

From the early days of the
Roman
Empire substantial trade developed
between the Mediterranean,
India and the
Far
East.Particularly valued in
Rome were items such as
Chinese silks, Indian muslins, and oriental spices of many sorts.Fleets of Greek and Roman ships conveyed
these goods from Indian ports to the Mediterranean; but as, at that
time, neither the Indians nor the Chinese had ocean-going vessels of their own,
transport between China and
India was dependant upon
Indonesian vessels – the famous kun-lun-po as the Chinese called them,
known to Greeks as kolandiaphonta.

One or two popular spices then obtainable
only in the islands of Indonesia – notably cinnamon
and some types of cassia – did not pass through
India, but seem to have
been shipped direct from the Indonesian islands to ports on the Horn of Africa,
from where they were carried on up the Red
Sea by Arabs.The only mariners then capable of this
trans-Indian Ocean traffic were Indonesians; and it was probably as a direct
result of this trade that many of them began to settle on the African coast
before people speaking the Bantu languages had migrated across
Africa in any strength,
and long before Arabs put down permanent roots.

Did women travel along with these
Indonesian sailors?One suspects that
they did not, and that from the earliest days, maybe from the second or third
century BC, there developed a mixed population of Cushites and San, some already
mixed-blood Hottentots, and eventually early Bantu–speaking migrants.It was these who formed the basis of an
‘Afronesian’ population which spread rapidly – by sea, and overland - down the
coast almost as far as Durban, with a material
culture that was essentially ‘African’, but which is almost universally, and
probably mistakenly, regarded as having been ‘Bantu’.(How archaeologists feel they can tell from
shards of pottery what language the people spoke is a mystery!)In actuality, for hundreds of years the lingua-franca of the coast is more likely to
have been built around an Austronesian framework, for it was from amongst these
‘Afronesians’ that the first, Austronesian speaking, inhabitants of
Madagascar came.But we are leaping
ahead.

Back home in Southeast Asia, still in
Roman times, with the Cambodian state, Funan, in full flower as the intermediary
between the Mediterranean and China, a growing demand for African goods – ivory,
ebony, skins, ambergris, incense, and minerals – added impetus to the
Indonesia/African ‘cinnamon’ connection.When the axis shifted from Funan to Kan-to-li, and eventually to
the tremendously powerful state of Srivijaya based on
Palembang in
Sumatra, interest in
Africa grew even
greater.

In the early centuries of the
1st millennium Srivijayans discovered gold in Sumatra’s western
mountains, possibly with the help of southern Indians whose mines were nearly
worked out by the 5th century.Subsequently gold became of fundamental importance to the Srivijayan
political system, fully justifying the name by which Sumatrawas known, Suvarnadvipa, the
‘Island of
Gold’.Thus, when their prospectors found goldin Central
Africa, a new era of trading
activity was immediately opened up.What is now Zimbabwe became the centre
of focus for Indonesian activities.With destinations at Sayuna (on the Zambezi), Chibuene (in Moçambique),
and other ports in the Ardas-Sufalah … as chronicled by El-Edrisi,
“the people of the Zabaj islands travel[led] to the Zanj … and engage[d] in
trafficking in their goods because they understand each others language”.

Who were the Indonesians who came to
Africa?A cursory study of the vast number of
‘sea-nomad’ tribes who, for thousands of years, have roamed the Indonesian
islands, reduces the number most likely to have undertaken responsible
long-distance trading, to a small handful.Most prominent among these are the Bajau or Bajo, who had settlements
from one end of the Indonesian archipelago to the other; and the Bugi, who are
still the most prominent among Indonesian merchant seamen.It is more likely to have been people such
as these to whom the rulers of Srivijaya would have looked for their ‘navies’
than people of the smaller, piratical, less reliable sukus off the Sumatran and Bornean
coasts.From
Indonesia there is
linguistic evidence to support the Bajo/Bugi contention.And from the African side, they offer a
tentative solution to two ‘mysteries’ – the origins of the ‘Bajun’ people in the
islands between Lamu and Kisimayu; and the otherwise inexplicable reason why the
Swahili call Madagascar and its people ‘Buki’ or ‘Bukini’.Indeed a major suku related to the Buginese, the
‘Makassar’, or ‘Mankassar’, may have a better claim to providing the origin of
the name ‘Madagascar’ than Marco Polo’s suggestion that it was from the arid
coastal town of ‘Mogadishu’ that his huge ‘green and fertile’ island took its
name.

Sailing from
Indonesia via the
Maldives to
East
Africa presents no problems.There is a theory that with winds and
currents in their favour, Indonesians used to sail direct to
Madagascar from
Sumatra or Java.But had they done so they would have found
and settled the Seychelles, Amirantes, and
other islands on the Mascarene ridge.That these fertile and well watered islands remained unoccupied until
modern times amounts to a near-certainty that the route they took was to the
Horn, and from their, down the coast.

With the Agulhas Current driving down the
Natal coast to the Cape, and the Benguela current flowing northward once round
it, there is no reason why adventurous seamen should not have gone on to explore
the West African coast; and there are plenty of reasons to suspect that that is
precisely what they did.These reasons can be listed as
follows:

·It is likely that the common
West African plantain, Musa AAB, that
is a staple food from the Congo to the
Gambia, together with
cultivated yams, and cocoyams, were all introduced to Africa from their
original Southeast Asian homeland directly on the west coast, conditions being largely
unsuitable in East and Central
Africa.

·The entomologist, Dr Laurence,
has remained unchallenged in his belief that elephantiasis – a disease of the swampy
Southeast Asian coast that has been portrayed in Nok and Ife sculptures – must
have been introduced directly into West Africa, and that it could not have
spread overland from the East coast.

·The intricate, quasi-religious
Ifa divination of the Yoruba has
fundamental similarities with the Bwe divination of Micronesians that go
beyond the possibility of ‘coincidence’ or ‘independent invention’. The basis of both, and other Central African
and Malagasy systems, have a mathematical basis that is oriental, not Arabic,
and to say, as many do, that Ifa was introduced by Arabs from the north is an
over-simplification.There is no
record of Arabspenetrating Yorubaland
until the fifteenth or sixteenth century, by which time Europeans were present
on the coast.But Arabs did introduce
a simplified version based on their al-raml sand divination, called atimi in Yorubaland, at a later date
than Ifa.

·Many West African ‘box’
xylophones, strikingly similar in tuning, and other ways, to those of
Southeast
Asia, differ from Central African
xylophones in ways that suggest an independent introduction.Other musical instruments, and their
tuning, share the same features as those of Southeast
Asia.

·Professor Hutton’s evidence on
many headhunting and cannibalism traits common to both regions, but not
elsewhere, cannot easily be dismissed.

·The introduction of maize to
Yorubaland (evidenced in impressed corn-cob designs in paved floors at Old Oyo)
several centuries before Europeans ‘discovered’ the region can best be explained
as having come from South America via Southeast Asia.

·At 9th century Igbo
Ukwu …Prospecting for tin and copper;
mining and smelting them in correct proportions for true bronze; preparing cire-perdue moulds; casting objects of
extraordinary fineness; ‘inventing’ repousse techniques; creating
sophisticated designs such as the Igbo bells that are a-typical of the region,
must have involved an introduction of technology from outside that may have come
with the thousands of foreign glass and carnelian beads that were buried with
them.Reasons were given at length in
the text why it is unlikely that theses came across the deserts or over the
Sudan from the north,
and why it is far more likely that they came to the Niger Delta from the sea …
i.e. from Southeast
Asia.

·Some stylistic similarities
were pointed out between some of the bronzes and terracottas of the ‘high art’
of Ife, and Southeast
Asian bronzes of approximately the same period which, taken as a corpus with
other evidence, cannot be overlooked.

Obviously there is an element of
speculation in all this.How we might
wish that some chronicler had been at hand to write down all the details at the
time!But winkling out the traces
that the phantom voyagers left in their wake, clearly some scenario such as I
have sketched must have unfolded over the centuries between Roman times and the
voyages of Diego Cao and de Gama.